“Come before (the Lord’s) presence with thanksgiving…”
How can we come into the presence of the Lord without being thankful? After all, the only reason that we have access to Him is because He allows it by grace. We have an understanding of being in the Lord’s presence that the psalmist did not have. The psalmist lived before the “veil of the temple was torn in two.” Because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, we have in His presence at all times. Not only should we “come before His presence with thanksgiving;” we should live in His presence with thanksgiving. There are at least three areas of our lives that we should approach the Lord in thanksgiving: when we worship, when we work and when we witness. We should approach the Lord in thankful worship on a daily basis. Sunday worship will not suffice. Every Christian should set aside a time for Bible reading and prayer each day. It is safe to say that every great Christian, throughout Christian history, has disciplined himself, or herself, to have devotions every day. How else can we express our thankfulness to Him for all that He has done in our lives? If you do not have a devotional time in your daily routine, you need to start one now. Also, we should be aware of God’s presence every moment of every day and be thankful that He is with us. We should also approach the Lord in thankful worship, in corporate worship with our church. Sunday should be a day of worship and praise with our fellow Christians. Again, all great Christians took time for this. If we are truly thankful, why would we have to begged or manipulated into publicly worshipping God? Public worship identifies us with the people of God, and indentifies us with all of the great people of God – past and present. We should go about our work in our chosen professions in a spirit of thanksgiving. Work was ordained in the Garden of Eden. Even before they sinned, Adam and Eve were told to tend the Garden. Work was not punishment; it was a privilege. Work did not become burdensome until sin entered the picture. The original words for work and worship are almost indistinguishable. We are not to just be thankful on out knees, but we are to be thankful as we go about our daily work. After all, we work in God’s presence each day. We should do Christian work, church work and otherwise in a spirit of thanksgiving. We should not begrudge the time that we spend in serving the Lord. We should be thankful for this work because the Lord allows us to work for Him. We are not doing God any favors. He favors us by letting us serve Him. Remember this as you go about your work for Him in your church and community – and be thankful. Every Christian is a witness for Jesus. We should not be afraid of this. We should be thankful. Again, witnessing is not our burden, it is our privilege. Witnessing should be a natural overflow of thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us. How can we be aware that we live in His presence daily and not yearn to witness for Him in some way. The first witness that we have is our lives. If we live thankfully before Him each day, people will see our lives and, perhaps, want what we have. You have probably heard the hymn: “Living for Jesus, a life that is true, living for Jesus in all that I do. Living for Jesus as life that is free, this is the pathway of blessing for me…” All of the above gives us good reason for us to “come before (God’s) presence with thanksgiving.” This would be a good time of year to consider this for your own life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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